Thomas Alexander Greener reached a huge milestone last Monday – he turned 100.
Tom, who is a resident of Lakes Entrance Care Community, celebrated his milestone with family and friends.
He was born in Northern England on November 4, 1924 and has lived an interesting life.
At 14 he worked as a coal miner, meeting his wife Margret at a local dance.
His hobbies then were bicycle racing and he became a novice champion.
When his son Peter was nine years old, the family immigrated to Australia. Here both Tom and Margret went straight to work in factories and saved to purchase their first house at Hampton Park.
Tom loved running and would often run to work in Springvale and back home again. Such was his passion for running he became the boundary umpire for the local football club and also won a medal in a marathon in Melbourne.
The family travelled around Australia by caravan and worked in South Australia picking grapes and in North Queensland cutting sugar cane.
Tom was artistic and carved coconuts and hand painted shells, selling them at Airlie Beach markets which paid for many holidays.
Tom is known for his trout fishing in the Snowy River and High Country where he would fly fish.
